“Some of the older children finish the leftovers of our chicken fried rice from the hostel, while others, like three-year-old Noppalong, are desperate for attention. Dashing over to me with her arms wide open, her big brown eyes will me to scoop her up, and she tries to clamber onto my lap. Worryingly, I’m aware of the speed at which I’m attaching myself to her. Before my arrival in Thailand, People and Places’ Grayson warned me to refrain from hugging the children. “Make no mistake,” she’d said, “making intimate connections with previously neglected or abused children will do more harm than good. With short-term projects, many of them will feel another abandonment after you leave.”